fans76b622a7 Posted at 1-4 05:27
I'm in no hurry, had to send the RC Pro and M3 back to DJI for multiple problems.  Hopefully they will replace both but I am grounded until late January.

Sorry to hear, I went through similar experience, which essentially lasted a month...

NGC Posted at 1-4 06:56
The fact that it is a *lot* worse since the Dec 10 fw release indicates that it isn't the BeiDou substitution for Glonass. But given DJI's poor communication, and failure to even acknowledge the issue in spite of it being so obvious and widely reported in so many support channels- I'm not tremendously confident it will be fixed in the next update (which DJI may very well delay as well).

"indicates that it isn't the BeiDou substitution for Glonass"

Do you have more information on this? Detail.

NGC Posted at 1-4 06:56
The fact that it is a *lot* worse since the Dec 10 fw release indicates that it isn't the BeiDou substitution for Glonass. But given DJI's poor communication, and failure to even acknowledge the issue in spite of it being so obvious and widely reported in so many support channels- I'm not tremendously confident it will be fixed in the next update (which DJI may very well delay as well).

Since it was changed via FW on Dec 10, the hope is it can be fixed via FW as well.
Now, the question is if/when...

NGC Posted at 1-4 06:21
It has to do with precision and thresholds in the TTFF (Time to First Fix). There are explanations online about this. (Mavicpilots has a whole thread of people that prior to the update it worked just fine and in the same locations, they have to now wait 3-5 mins). That is why it got a lot worse with the most recent update - they now don't allow TTFF until there is 12 satellites (on average). But that is only one of the factors they changed.  Many people face a number of minutes of it just sitting there before the homepoint is updated. Historically, DJI drones (including the Mavic 3) were about 60 seconds or less. After the Dec 10 update, the M3 is much, much worse for most people.

I just tested today first hour it took 38 seconds , then one hour later it took 31 seconds and just now 42 seconds and none of my other drones are much quicker. Waiting 2/3 minutes is to long but its hard to see how FW can change some and not others. There is already a failsafe for taking off with less than 12 sats which reduces your altitude climb.

In my testing I’m getting 12/14 sats by 30/40 seconds.

NGC Posted at 1-4 07:09
What detail do you want? The M3 uses GPS, Beidou, and Galileo as opposed to GPS, Galileo, and Glonass on their other drones like the Air2S. You can see that in the spec sheets.

Then how would you explain it working for everyone before 12/10 .

NGC Posted at 1-4 07:10
Then you are much luckier than most others who experience a much longer delay after the 12/10 fw. Again, fw can change a great deal in terms of threshold setting for GPS. See the mavicpilot threads or other explanations online if you want to learn more.

I’m not luckier, I expect it to work this way so should everyone.

NGC Posted at 1-4 07:21
Sure. That's the whole point. DJI made some changes to TTFF in the 12.10 fw that is causing problems. I don't see what's so hard to understand.

You keep saying dji made changes to TTFF 12/10 that effected some but dji won’t recognize this happened so won’t do anything about it. That doesn’t make any sense. Its like saying dji are happy their customers are getting messed about even though the could simply change it. Why would they not want to fix this for some ?

NGC Posted at 1-4 08:43
It's not a matter of "wanting". As of now DJI isn't even acknowledging a widespread issue. It could be that they have poor communication. It could be that they are having other urgent priorities. It could be a million things. DJI often creates bugs and doesn't fix them. Delays fixes. Ignores issues. That's not new for DJI to do that. That happened for years - talk to the guys in the Inspire forums.

The fact that DJI don’t publicly acknowledge this problem means nothing, its a rare acknowledgement if DJI admits to doing anything wrong , but I’m certain if its a problem they will try to fix it, its surely not in their interest to have problems.  Bugs are caused in tech FW/SW in almost every piece of tech on the planet. I’m sure if its a bug it will get attention we will probably never know when but hopefully it comes with next FW update.

First off, I don't have enough experience to have an opinion regarding sat acquisition pre/post firmware update.  I don't remember it being this poor, but my flying habits have varied enough to where I am not comfortable making that correlation.

One observation I am willing to make:  It appears that the drone is far more sensitive to anything obstructing the sky.  When I launch from my backyard, I am launching from an exposed area of my deck, and there is a lot of "obstruction" from the house and the deck roof (though the roof is not directly above the drone).  Under those circumstances, I've experienced occasions of sat-lock taking >2 minutes (though I've not recorded the data).  If, however, I get sufficient satellites to get a "weak" signal (allowing me to elevate 98 feet), and if I elevate beyond those obstructions, sat lock occurs fairly quickly AFTER flying the drone above the obstructions.

Also, if I get sat lock, fly, land, shut-down, and re-start from same obstructed location, sat lock is instantaneous (I don't have enough time to start a timer to measure).

As I've said, I've not collected the data formally to support these conclusions, and this is just user experience.  But in my experience this drone is far more sensitive to any obstructed view of the sky, of any kind.  The MA2, however, acquires rapidly in the same environment.

Charles Adams Posted at 1-4 10:45
First off, I don't have enough experience to have an opinion regarding sat acquisition pre/post firmware update.  I don't remember it being this poor, but my flying habits have varied enough to where I am not comfortable making that correlation.

One observation I am willing to make:  It appears that the drone is far more sensitive to anything obstructing the sky.  When I launch from my backyard, I am launching from an exposed area of my deck, and there is a lot of "obstruction" from the house and the deck roof (though the roof is not directly above the drone).  Under those circumstances, I've experienced occasions of sat-lock taking >2 minutes (though I've not recorded the data).  If, however, I get sufficient satellites to get a "weak" signal (allowing me to elevate 98 feet), and if I elevate beyond those obstructions, sat lock occurs fairly quickly AFTER flying the drone above the obstructions.

My experience has been practically identical to yours.
I am still too lazy to do a real side-by-side comparison, especially since DJI either already knows about it (even though their support seems to deny it), or they really are ignoring it. In either case, it would be a total case of preaching to the choir, and would not make a single bit of difference.
I still might do it, just for S&G

NGC Posted at 1-4 11:01
I agree with your findings. And it got dramatically worse straight after the 12/10 fw update - I agree with others who are finding that. Don't know why DJI needed to mess around with it and break something that wasn't broken.

I think we can all agree that Dec 10 fix *was* rushed.
And we all know that when things are rushed, things break.

DarthSLR Posted at 1-4 12:44
I think we can all agree that Dec 10 fix *was* rushed.
And we all know that when things are rushed, things break.

The only reason the DEC 10 fix was pushed out was to quiet the already mounting criticism and frustration from its customers over having a half-baked Mavic 3. It makes sense, buy more time. What will DJI do next? You can most certainly be sure they are listening. No doubt.

NGC Posted at 1-4 07:09
What detail do you want? The M3 uses GPS, Beidou, and Galileo as opposed to GPS, Galileo, and Glonass on their other drones like the Air2S. You can see that in the spec sheets.

Ah thanks I was not aware of that, looked at the specs many times and did not pick up on it.

I wonder if the Chinese know something we don't. Like the Russians building up their numbers on the Ukrainian border. A major war could very well make them shut down public Glonass.

NGC Posted at 1-4 19:05
The “January” update will be “February” 17. It will *not* contain panoramas. And still no improvements to the useless 1/2” sensor camera. No manual modes for it, RAW, etc.

LOL
You're just rain of sunshine, ain't ya?
it will be what it will be when it will be.
Just hope all the issues are FW only and we don't end up with bad hardware

NGC Posted at 1-4 19:05
The “January” update will be “February” 17. It will *not* contain panoramas. And still no improvements to the useless 1/2” sensor camera. No manual modes for it, RAW, etc.

AND you have direct knowledge of February 17th???
How so???
Just love it when people make statements as fact when your post is complete rumor/wish!

I think it got delayed, https://twitter.com/DJISupport/status/1482375450983014400?s=20

JrFTW Posted at 1-17 15:32
I think it got delayed, https://twitter.com/DJISupport/status/1482375450983014400?s=20

That tweet doesn’t mention delay, have you more information ?

NGC Posted at 1-17 17:08
You tweeted at them from your unused Twitter account and they basically told you it’s delayed. I’m also telling you it’s delayed until mid February. Now go back to sleep.

I'm not saying you are wrong about a delay, but I don't see anything in that tweet indicating any sort of a delay.  It seems like a very standard DJI support comment for someone asking about a timeline.  They always say some version of "I can't answer you, so just keep an eye out".

NGC Posted at 1-17 17:08
You tweeted at them from your unused Twitter account and they basically told you it’s delayed. I’m also telling you it’s delayed until mid February. Now go back to sleep.

NGC, there is a lot of interest and anticipation in the next firmware update, and there is an understandable desire to get any information available.  We have some sources coming to us now, some of which are unwilling to share or divulge their sources (which I understand and respect).  If your information is accurate, you know more than you are sharing, and there is more to be known than you have divulged.  Because your information is not enough, we will continue to question, test, validate whatever information we get and seek more.

NGC Posted at 1-17 18:40
Fair enough. I’m not going to give a seminar as to how I know, but it’s obviously ok if you don’t want to believe me. The date was set a couple weeks ago. The only “new” feature will be panorama. They haven’t even finished beta testing yet and there are a lot of bugs still and will likely be many bugs upon release- and they won’t likely fix a number of bugs people have been reporting here. Lockdowns have prevented a lot of work.[Image]

I believe you, you were accurate before.

I am not alarmed by a delay.  I would prefer quality over speed.

NGC Posted at 1-17 18:57
Same here. But I unfortunately think that there could well be absence of speed and quality. For a while longer.

That is unfortunate but not surprising!  

This is what DJI Support seems to be telling me. What January update, we gave it to you in December.

BrianKushner Posted at 1-18 01:52
This is what DJI Support seems to be telling me. What January update, we gave it to you in December.

And my followup....

NGC Posted at 1-17 17:08
You tweeted at them from your unused Twitter account and they basically told you it’s delayed. I’m also telling you it’s delayed until mid February. Now go back to sleep.

I got the same standard reply, nothing to say it was delayed.